Long gone the days where seeing any gay character on tv was unusual and stunning. Today, most shows on TV have one or two characters which might be gay. However , they’re merely there while an excuse intended for diversity, just a few number of these people actually check out gay relationships or provide them with equal display time and mental depth because their heterosexual counterparts (Deb, 2012). This addition of multiple different depictions of homosexual couples and gay and lesbian persons by tv is being broadly praised by LBGT community as it the actual idea of homosexuality more common and representative of some of the community (Purcell, 2014).
Nevertheless , people who get solely off the media’s depiction of gays(i think they are sick) and lesbians could have a skewed watch of what they are actually just like. This could be damaging for junior who will be developing their particular ideas of what homosexuals are actually just like as this is all their only method to obtain information on it (Purcell, 2014). Whenever a new television show comes around with a gay character, the initial people question is “Is he/she playing a realistic depiction or is definitely he/she yet another cliche? But it appears no matter how the smoothness is portrayed or how the character acts, someone will be unhappy if perhaps not angry at the interpretation. You will notice and read comments just like “He’s as well gay! or “They’re trying too hard to make her look lesbian or “I’m gay and I’m nothing like them. This dissertation will evaluate how the tv program ‘glee’ mediates queer sexuality through their male gay characters.
History
Glee is usually an American audio comedy-drama tv that began airing around the Fox network in the United States last year and is still on surroundings. It has recently been on syndication on numerous channels worldwide and the 6th and last of the show will be airing this land. Although it isn’t the most innovative or the majority of controversial show when it comes to depicting queer libido, I chose to analyze it as it is more relevant and well-liked by my era than reveals such as Ellen and Queer as Folks. It is also upon network television with a large following, therefore having a broader reach and stronger effect, A.
The show concentrates on the lives of a band of friends that take part in all their high school joy club, New Directions, because they try to manage “relationships, sexuality, social problems, and finding out how to become a powerful team (Project Casting, 2014). When the series first shown it had only a single leading gay figure, however while the present progressed a lot of characters learned that they also have gay feelings and desires, furthermore new character types were released which were likewise queer. The show has broken the mold by bringing an extensive range of singular characters for the television sets of yankee audiences, which includes an chicken gay person, a jock who is homosexual buy ashamed, a homosexual man that comfortable in the sexuality, a girl coming in conditions with like a lesbian, and a androgino.
One of the biggest opinions of the media’s portrayal of homosexuals and same sex couples is that they are demonstrated as right people would like to see them. Gay guys are usually viewed as overly showy and feminine bringing about that belief. And women will be either known as manly and butch, or perhaps as found on the show The L Word as what a straight person would want to observe (Purcell, 2014). So is the media’s characterization of gays and lesbians a positive thing? On one hand it brings attention to something that was at one time a taboo and makes that more common, but one the other side of the coin it creates stereotypes that teenagers and young adults associate with queer persons.
Consequently, the show has become both lauded as “leading TV’s homosexual teen revolution” and belittled for its occasionally “obvious” and “stereotypical” “neat neutering” of gay heroes (EW Staff, 2011, Johnson, 2010). No matter what, with a wide variety of queer sexualities represented, the show varies from traditional teen tv narratives where queer identification is not often considered one of many “facts of life” (Kielwasser and Wolf, 1992).
KURT HUMMEL:
What got persons talking about the show to begin with, other than the background music, is the story surrounding the openly gay character, Kurt Hummel. A few find his story as the heart from the show, and part responsible for the displays great achievement (O’Callaghan, 2011). The character is definitely played simply by openly gay actor Frank Colfer, who may have won a lot of accolades for this role. Most of the story lines he has been in come from activities that took place to him in secondary school. The professional has stated that this individual didn’t want Kurt to get “overly ornate because it’s so overdone, but instead, planned to portray the smoothness as “more internal and superior using a ” ‘I’m better than you’ persona when “underneath everything he’s precisely the same anxious and scared teenager everyone is/was at some point in their lives (Fernandez, 2009).
However that is not what the people saw. Even though he just reveals his sexual identity to his best friend inside the third show, you could already tell that he is ‘queer’ from his first landscape in the pilot episode (Pilot (Glee), 2009). You have probably run into characters with similar if perhaps not specific characteristic since Kurt, in movies, tv programs, and even catalogs.
In his initial scene, he is wearing visible make up with several levels of branded clothing, which no way will be school dress. What is a lot more peculiar is the fact he is able to find the money for all this clothing, even though he comes from a low-income friends and family. When he addresses he makes references to fashion brands and Broadway shows, that this other character types are not possibly aware of. He also has a feminine walk and flips his hair every few minutes. In that same event, Kurt works the entire “Mr. Cellophane amount in a large falsetto. His choice of music suggests that he can not noticed for who he really is, and his choice to sing in a woman range fog the lines between his gender and sexuality.
Even though it’s a cliche, its no ‘inaccurate portrayal. ‘ The show is not a documentary, therefore some qualities are unrealistic and it can deal with the honest perceptions people have regarding gay persons. While some applaud Glee to get it’s genuine portrayal of its gay and lesbian characters, others claim the too picture perfect. Kurt is represented as a flawless person in his looks in addition to his actions, which may provide gay teens unrealistic expectations in that they should appear and how they have to act. What is being shown is the desirable image of the gay guy, in terms of competition and school, is the same as the desirable picture of the heterosexual male.
What differentiates Kurt from the rest of the stereotypical gay and lesbian characters is the fact hes not there pertaining to laughs or perhaps diversity. Hes there as they serves the objective of saying, gays(i think they are sick) are real persons with feelings too, and hes right now there to let homosexual teens find out theyre not by yourself. And that’s why theres more reward than outrage toward a personality like Kurt. As a gay and lesbian teen, Kurt is facing a number of scenarios that problem his the case identity. In a later event, named ‘Preggers’, Kurt ties the soccer team so that they can show his dad that he is certainly not gay.
Following returning home from kicking the game earning point, he can shown inside the basement of his residence applying skincare in front of a conceit mirror (Preggers, 2009). He finally notify his daddy that he can gay, on the other hand his father admits he has noted that Kurt was gay since having been three as they asked for high heel shoes as a birthday gift. This can be another male or female stereotype, in which girls desire dolls and men want cars.